But Provides Little Vindication for Bush Policies Unemployment Rate in March Actually Inches Up, With 200,000 More Unemp

WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) released the following statement this morning regarding the Department of Labor’s employment report for March, which showed that 308,000 jobs were created last month:

“The Labor Department’s report today is long-overdue welcome news for job seekers, but one month does not a successful economic policy make. Even if the economy added this number of jobs every month for the rest of the year, George W. Bush would barely break even on job creation for his entire four-year term and have the worst record of job creation since the Great Depression.

“While the Bush Administration will undoubtedly pop open the champagne bottles today, the plight of the over 8 million unemployed Americans demands some perspective.

“First, the unemployment rate in March actually increased to 5.7 percent and the number of unemployed Americans rose to 8.4 million because 200,000 job seekers re-entered the job market.

“And second, a simple comparison with the Clinton Administration demonstrates the current Administration’s continued abysmal economic performance. Over its eight years, the Clinton Administration presided over an economy that created 22 million jobs in eight years, an average job gain of 229,000 every single month. During the last three and one-half years, the economy has lost more than 2 million jobs.

“While I hope that we will see continued job gains in the coming months, the Bush Administration should not celebrate too loudly in the face of an increased unemployment rate.”